Grant Reeher

Host, The Campbell Conversations

Grant Reeher is Director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and a professor of political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also creator, host and program director of “The Campbell Conversations” on WRVO, a weekly regional public affairs program featuring extended in-depth interviews with regional and national writers, politicians, activists, public officials, and business professionals.

Grant’s research and teaching interests are primarily in American politics and political theory, with an emphasis on legislative politics, democratic representation, and active citizenship. Among other books, he is the author of First Person Political: Legislative Life and the Meaning of Public Service (2006), Narratives of Justice: Legislators’ Beliefs about Distributive Fairness (1996), co-author of Click on Democracy: The Internet's Power to Change Political Apathy into Civic Action (2002), and co-editor of The Trusted Leader: Building the Relationships that Make Government Work (2008, 2nd ed. 2012). His academic journal publications include pieces in Health Affairs; Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law; The Responsive Community; Polity; and PS: Political Science and Politics. He has also published many editorial essays on various political topics, including pieces in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Ottawa Citizen,Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and pieces that have been distributed through Knight-Ridder.

At various points he has been a regular columnist for The Syracuse Post-Standard. He has also been quoted in many newspaper stories, including pieces appearing in The New York Times,USA Today, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, Salon, Newsday, and Roll Call. In 2008, he co-founded CNYSpeaks, a deliberative public engagement initiative dedicated to providing residents of the Central New York region with opportunities to have a meaningful and constructive voice about issues affecting their lives. Grant is a 1982 graduate of Dartmouth College, and earned his Ph.D. in 1992 from Yale University.

Ways To Connect

Michael Falcone is Chairman Emeritus of the Pioneer Companies, a commercial real estate development enterprise in Upstate New York, Denver, and Phoenix. Prior to that, he was a partner with Robert Congel in the Pyramid Companies. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks with him about malls, hotels, the development trajectory of Syracuse, the proper role of government in development, and Syracuse University's impact on the city.

Through its Engage CNY initiative, the non-profit organization CNY Arts has recently completed a thorough inventory and survey of the arts, and of citizens' views and preferences about arts and culture in the Central New York region. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks with Stephen Butler, the executive director of CNY Arts, about the findings, and about the plan that has been developed in light of them. They also discuss the Syracuse Symphony and the Everson Museum.

On this week's edition of the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher talks with the David Holwerk, Director of Communications for the Kettering Foundation and a long-time print journalist, about the problems with American democracy and constructive citizen engagement, and what the Foundation is doing to try to address them.

One of the fallouts of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has been the emergence of several groups dedicated to amending the Constitution, in order to reverse the case and limit the role of money in politics. A leader among them has been the group Move to Amend. On this week’s edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with the group’s national spokesperson, David Cobb. Cobb was also the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2004.

In one of his first extended public interviews, John Katko talks with Grant Reeher on the Campbell Conversations. Katko is the former federal prosecutor challenging Dan Maffei for the 24th Congressional district seat this fall. In a wide-ranging discussion, Katko addresses whether he’s a moderate or a conservative, how he thinks about entitlements and taxes, Obamacare, and the level of dysfunction in the current Congress. He also discusses the role of money in the campaign.

Elect Her is an initiative co-sponsored by the American Association of University Women. It involves trainings held at universities and colleges to support and recruit more young women to pursue leadership positions on campus, as well as future political office. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher speaks with a local director of the Association, and a recent student participant in the initiative, about the problem of under-representation of

In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher continues the discussion with Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee. The governor frankly describes the political challenges he's encountered as governor, and the effects of his party switch after being elected. He also discussed his state's relatively smooth roll-out of Obamacare, and his political future.

In the first of two-part interview, Grant Reeher discusses the current level of conflict and polarization between the two parties with Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee. Chafee is particularly well-suited as an observer of this problem--when in the U.S. Senate he was known as a moderate Republican. He left the party following his service there, and successfully ran for governor as an independent. He's now a Democrat.

Over the past 40 years, the world has witnessed a wave of democratization. Why have so many dictatorships fallen? This week on the Campbell Conversations, University of San Francisco professor Stephen Zunes argues that it’s largely because of strategic non-violent movements. Zunes also specializes in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and there he argues that the U.S. enables Israeli policies that give it little incentive to compromise, making the peace process difficult.

One of Syracuse’s most intriguing mayors is Democrat James McGuire, who in 1896 bucked a Republican establishment to be elected into office, at just 26. This week on the Campbell Conversations host Grant Reeher talks with his biographer, Onondaga County Court Judge Joseph Fahey, about the mayor’s times, his legacy, and his controversial activism on behalf of Irish independence.

In a continuation of last week's conversation about government whistleblowing, host Grant Reeher talks this week with two actual whistleblowers, both of whom tell powerful stories about their experience. Susan Wood blew the whistle on the Food and Drug Administration's political stonewalling on the approval of the morning-after pill "Plan B," and Thomas Drake blew the whistle on the National Security Agency's "Trailblazer" data collection project, and was later charged with espionage, bef

The not-for-profit Government Accountability Project has been at the center of many of the nation’s highest profile whistleblower cases—involving nuclear power plants, the Star Wars anti-missile defense system, the World Bank, and the National Security Agency. This week on the Campbell Conversations host Grant Reeher talks with Louis Clark, the Project’s President. Clark discusses the importance of individual employees going public, and the challenges to them in doing so.

Like other newspapers, The Syracuse Post Standard has struggled in recent years, and it has made significant changes in the way it delivers the news and how it tries to interact with the public. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher talks with Tim Kennedy, the person now in charge of navigating its course. Find out why he sees a bright future of opportunities for the Syracuse Media Group, despite the hits the company has taken.

Sub-Saharan Africa is a big waterfront to cover, about 50 countries, with great diversity, but this edition of the Campbell Conversations attempts to cover it. Host Grant Reeher speaks with Hobart and William Smith political science professor Kevin Dunn, who has written numerous books on the region. They explore recent trends, common misperceptions, American foreign policy, and the increasing influence of China.

Domestic abuse and sexual violence are complicated social problems that many people find difficult even to talk about. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher has a frank and open discussion with Vera House executive director Randi Bregman, about the nature of the problems, the best ways to address them, and the personal experience of working with the victims.

You'd think that Global Warming would make for less snow, but in this episode of the Campbell Conversations we learn why it might produce more snow, at least in Central New York. Host Grant Reeher talks with Mark Monmonier about his latest book, Lake Effect: Tales of Large Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows. Find out what fascinated this Geography professor so much about our local snowfalls that he wrote an entire

What effects do campaign contributions and independent expenditures really have on the way that Congress works? On this episode of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Yale political scientist Eleanor Powell, an expert on money and Congress. Powell describes the complicated web of money’s influence, and considers what could realistically be done to change the system.

February is Black History Month, but in this edition of the Campbell Conversations, humorist Larry Wilmore explains why he’d rather African-Americans got casinos instead of the celebration—which is also the title of his recent book. The writer and performer also discusses his experiences as the “senior black correspondent” for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The American population is rapidly aging, and this has enormous implications for our health care system. Among other challenges, there are fewer workers contributing to Medicare and Medicaid, relative to the population using those programs. On this week’s edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Geriatric specialist Dr. Sharon Brangman about the trends in aging, the special health care needs of the elderly, and the ways that our medical system does, and does not, respond to them.

You sometimes hear that with all we know about the dangerous health effects of cigarettes, you’d have to be crazy to smoke. That turns out to be more true than we might realize. In this episode of the Campbell Conversations host Grant Reeher talks with tobacco control policy expert Cliff Douglas, and uncovers a variety of disturbing—and sometimes hopeful—information about our society’s tobacco use, tobacco policies, and the tobacco industry.

What would a city planner and architect who focuses on the importance of something called "walkability" make of the I-81 question and Destiny USA? On this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Jeff Speck, a city planner and architectural designer, and the author of Walkable

In 2012, the voters in the 24th Congressional district gave Dan Maffei a second chance when they chose him to replace Ann Marie Buerkle, after she had defeated him just two years before. Now a year in to his new term in office, Maffei sits down with host Grant Reeher to discuss unemployment benefits, economic inequality, Obamacare, Afghanistan, and whether Congress is becoming more functional.

In a recently published book, Brandeis University researcher Rosalind Barnett argues that there is a new “soft war” on women, which is reinforcing gender inequality and harming not only women, but also men and the general economy. This war is being fueled in part by a growing “myth” that women have largely accomplished their historic struggle for equality. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher explores those arguments with Barnett, the co-author of

The Syracuse University Men's Basketball Team is off to a good start this season, in its first season in the ACC. The team is 9-0 and ranked 4th in the nation after defeating Binghamton University on Saturday. On this week's edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Mike Hopkins, SU associate head coach. Hopkins discusses how athletics and academics mix in big-time college sports, the recipes for success as a player and a coach, and how some aspects of the system might be improved.

Kent Syverud arrives in Upstate New York in January to become Syracuse University's next Chancellor. Intense speculation has surrounded the transition--will there be a change of course from Nancy Cantor's signature commitment to the City of Syracuse and the Upstate region? Will the university focus more on improving its rankings and increasing its endowment? In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with the incoming chancellor about his future learning curve at SU, and his experiences as dean of the law schools at Vanderbilt and Washington Universities, as well a

The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption is already making waves in Albany, as the media and the public react to what's coming out at its public hearings. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with the Commission's Co-chair, Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick, about the Commission's work and its possible impact on the state's politics. He also addresses the charge that the Governor Andrew Cuomo is meddling in the Commission's affairs.

A powerful new documentary about the war in Afghanistan, The Hornet’s Nest, features a father and son team embedded for two years with American forward units. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks with filmmaker Mike Boettcher, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning war correspondent, and David Salzberg, the film’s co-director and producer, about the making of the film—and how it has affected them, the soldiers, and their families.

Some of the most difficult-to-enforce provisions from the New York SAFE Act will soon come online. On this week’s edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Oswego County Sheriff Reuel Todd, who recently joined a constitutional challenge to the law filed by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. Find out why the county’s top cop thinks the law misses its target, and why the controversies surroundi